U.S. Open's fury preps Enberg for NFL's fireworks

Dick Enberg spent the last three weeks in New York at the U.S. Open, where it's too bad nothing interesting happened.

“No, not at all,” Enberg said, laughing. “Everything was calm.”

Of course it was — until Saturday night, when Serena Williams went all John McEnroe times 1,000.

“I've seen rage before,” said Enberg, who was calling the match for CBS, “but that rates right up there in terms of on-field or in-arena.”

Thus far Williams has been fined $10,500, which Enberg believes is laughable.

“They're making a huge mistake if they don't impose some added penalty,” Enberg said. “She made $550,000 in the tournament — 200 (thousand) in doubles. I think she should keep that, but take the 350 (thousand) away from her. Or don't allow her to compete in the next major, which would be a little severe. . . . But if they let her get away with $10,500, my goodness, that's just chump change.”

The Open will remain memorable for Enberg for other reasons as well — the feel-good stories of Kim Clijsters and Melanie Oudin and the upset of Roger Federer by Juan Martin del Potro.

But, by late Monday night, just a few hours after del Potro's surprising win, Enberg already was moving on. He stayed up past 1:30 a.m. EDT to watch the Chargers-Raiders game, then flew home to La Jolla to prepare for the rest of his year.

As he said yesterday, “My tennis cap is in the trunk and I've got out the helmet and I'm already deep into the Chargers and the Ravens.”

Enberg and his new partner, Dan Fouts, will be working Chargers-Ravens on Sunday and Chargers-Dolphins a week from Sunday.

Enberg called numerous games that Fouts played, but they never worked together before the Hall of Fame quarterback joined Enberg and Randy Cross in a three-man booth for three games last season.

“It worked really well,” Enberg said, “and I was shocked when I heard that Randy wasn't coming back. But it'll be a terrific fit (with Fouts). I feel I know him very well from his playing days and then having the chance to work together for three games. He's got a good sense of humor, he looks at the game as a quarterback does, and I think that's a tremendous advantage. . . . And we all know that he can be very candid and on the cutting edge when he wants to.”

Now the only question is whether Enberg's friends and Fouts' fans in San Diego will get to see the games. The Chargers received a 24-hour blackout extension yesterday, which means it's logical to assume the game will be on TV — this week.

“It's a statement of the times,” Enberg said. “I can understand the public saying it's an expensive treat and where we could have afforded it in the past, it's just not possible this year. I empathize with that.”

It would be a shame for the NFL to deny Southern California the telecasts of Chargers games this season because the local team couldn't sell a few thousand crummy (and overpriced) seats that were built only because the league promised Super Bowls that it no longer delivers. But, hey, the NFL says you can watch blacked-out games at midnight on your computer, so what are you complaining about?

Flipping channels

•Nothing against Enberg and Fouts, both of whom I like and respect, but almost any announcers would be a welcome relief after Monday night and the nonsense of
Mike Greenberg
and
Mike Golic
(and to a lesser extent,
Steve Young
). Too much talking, not enough knowledge, especially on the rule that cost the Raiders a TD in the first half. (Fox's
Brian Billick,
of all people, and
Ian Eagle
of CBS also had problems with the rules Sunday.)

•Another example of how announcers don't affect ratings — Monday's game drew an amazing 36.1 Nielsen rating in San Diego split between ESPN and KFMB Channel 8. That makes it the fourth highest-rated Chargers regular-season telecast here in the past decade.

•Shame on CBS last week for not cutting back to the studio to show the winning TD in the Broncos-Bengals game. It would have taken 15 seconds.

•No excuse, either, for Fox going to a commercial just before the officials brought out the chains to measure on fourth-and-1 in Giants-Redskins. They couldn't wait?

•Sure was missing
Al Michaels
when Baltimore scored late to beat Kansas City by 14 points. You know he wouldn't have passed on the chance to note the point spread was 13.

•On ESPN's “Outside the Lines” at 6 a.m. Sunday, North County resident
Tom Friend
has the story of
T.C. McCartney,
the son of the late
Sal Aunese
and the daughter of Colorado coach
Bill McCartney.
Twenty years after Aunese's death, T.C. is the backup quarterback at LSU, where his coach is
Les Miles,
who recruited Aunese from Vista High to Colorado.

•We hinted at this two weeks ago, but the official announcement is coming next week — ESPN Radio will be simulcast on 800-AM and 98.9-FM, beginning Oct. 5. Great news, particularly with baseball's postseason starting the next day.